I've been forced not to trust you
by internallyscreamingdaily
Summary: The turtles find themselves in a predicament after Shredder experiments further with mind control.
1. The plan

I do not own rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise

Note: This is my first fanfic, so constructive criticism will be appreciated.

"Calm down, Raph!" exclaimed Leo as Raphael raised his fist threateningly.

"CALM DOWN?!" came the reply. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW-"

It was nothing new that Leo and Raph were arguing again. They were siblings, after all. As they rambled on, Mikey hid his face lower in his comic, pretending to read it, but in truth, just trying to remain unnoticed until the argument was over. Donnie sat to the right of him, staring silently into the fight. By his calculations, this quibble had been going on a lot longer than average, and he didn't see that it would stop anytime soon.

Michelangelo jumped at the loud clang of Raph throwing his sais against the ground. As his comic drifted to the ground, he stared wide-eyed into his two oldest brothers' angry faces. He wistfully glanced over at the turnstyles that led to the exit of the lair before turning to Donatello.

"I'm going up," he said.

Donnie had to read his lips to understand what he was saying as it was much too loud to hear his little bro. He nodded in comprehension, and Michelangelo leapt up and ran over to the turnstyles before disappearing from view.

Deciding that it wasn't such a bad idea as he looked at his older brothers again, Donnie got up to go to the dojo to tell Splinter that he would be going, too. If he tried to tell Leo or Raph, they would pay him no mind.

Michelangelo flipped his skateboard in mid-air as he glided from one rooftop to another. He took a minute to enjoy dodging the various antennas, satellite dishes, and ventilation ducts before proceeding to the next. Having a cool breeze while he sped on was quite pleasant. He loved skateboarding on rooftops. The height made it all the more dangerous, but the air of risk made it even more fun and exhilarating to him. He preferred activities with the rush and excitement of adventure. He wondered vaguely if Raph and Leo had finished bickering as he flipped, holding tight onto his board beneath him.

A few miles away, the Stockman-fly sat at his desk, eating a Choco-log and staring at the computer screen, which was filled with over complicated science charts and formula and some calculations. He repeatedly tapped his clawed hand on the desk, nervously contemplating a specific graph.

He jumped as he heard his lab doors slide open. He looked into the shadows behind the doors. From them emerged none other than The Shredder, flanked by Tiger Claw, then Rahzar and Fishface, then finally Bebop and Rocksteady. The Shredder marched forward there was space for all of them to enter, then came to an abrupt halt.

The Stockman-fly flew out of his chair and landed on his hands and knees, bowing to Shredder.

"Baxter Stockman," Shredder growled, with a definite air of authority in his voice.

"Y-yezzz, Mazzter?" Stockman buzzed, his voice quivering.

"I have come to realise that the turtles' greatest strength can be turned into their greatest weakness," he growled, an extremely rare hint of pleasure in his voice. "They depend on each other. If we could control one, we could wipe them all out. I want you to continue your work on the brain worm creatures. Eliminate all of the weaknesses that they had last time, or the consequences will be... unfortunate."

"Yezzz, zzir," said Stockman.

"As for the rest of you-" continued Shedder, turning to face his henchmen. "-find the turtles. They are more vulnerable separated. When one is alone, that is when you will attack. They are too strong together. Knock him out and bring him here. We will control him against his pitiful brothers and Splinter. They will not be willing to fight him, and we will have our vengeance!"

His other henchmen bowed in understanding, then all of them left the room one by one, leaving Stockman to get to work. He flew over to his computer and pulled up his research on the worms. There were detailed sketches and lists of chemicals on the document. He came across the chemical on the bottom of the list- the reactant.

 _Yes,_ he thought. _That's what activates the entire solution... so if I just add more of that, the chemicals will work faster and make it stronger!_

He goggled for a second over how simple yet effective the solution was. He flew happily over to his desk and began to work feverishly. This plan was going to work. They were finally going to take down the turtles.


	2. Catch, conrol, and release

Catch, control, and release

"Guys!"

April ran into the lair, followed by Casey, both breathless. Leo and Raph had agreed not to talk about their earlier argument. Leo turned to looked at them from a rerun of _Space Heroes,_ and Raph from the limp dummy, which he had been pummeling mercilessly.

"What happened?" Leo asked after observing his sweating, red-faced friends.

"We trailed a Kraang that we spotted to a secret lab that they have. We were listening in when they spotted them. We escaped them, but they're going to unleash another weapon at midnight!" Casey panted.

"Then we have less than an hour to get there," said Leo urgently. "Where is it?"

Donnie was quite enjoying himself. He was in the dead end of a dark alley. There were buildings on three sides of him that provided him some cover so that he was not likely to be seen by passerbys. He was rummaging in a dumpster behind a robotics facility, having vivid fantasies of what he could make. There were tons of electronic parts that had been scrapped because they were broken or malfunctioning, but for him, they would be an easy fix. He pulled out a computer chip that caught his attention and started to tweak with it, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he did, when he heard a noise behind him.

He turned around to see that the alley was deserted. He waited and watched, and finally, a cat, striped orange and black with only one eye and a stub where a tail had been, emerged from behind a crate.

Michelangelo laughed as he jumped over another alley. He skated to the edge of a rooftop and skidded to a halt, realizing that he should be going back soon. He turned around, picked his board up, and started to walk across the roof.

He gasped as he hit something solid. He stumbled back and regained his footing as he looked at the place where he had hit it. There was nothing there. Now alert, he drew his nunchucks and held them in front of him, ready. He gave a yelp as someone hit him sharply on the back of his head. Whirling around, he swung his nunchucks. There was a loud THWACK as one hit something, then, as he heard something rolling across the roof, Bebop seemed to materialize out of thin air.

"I tracked you down, turtle!" he snorted as he got to his feet.

He raised his hand and pointed his hand at Mikey, who stood still, but ready to move. Mikey grasped his nunchucks tightly, staring intently at Bebop, but before either of them could move, Mikey's attention was drawn to something else. He heard heavy footsteps behind him, and he turned just in time to see Rocksteady's heavy golden hammer swinging at him.

 _Wow,_ thought Donnie, _Mikey sure would be upset if he saw a cat as mistreated as this one._

The cat scampered away, and Donatello turned back to work.

"Why aren't Mikey and Donnie coming?" asked April as the _Shellraiser_ finally slowed to a halt.

"They weren't in the lair when you came, and we didn't have the time to go get them," Leo replied.

"Besides, we can do this without 'em," Raph added, waving his hand nonchalantly.

Michelangelo was laying entirely still, restrained to to the lab table and still unconscious. Stockman had healed the place where Rocksteady had hit him with a special serum- he was to be healthy if they wanted him to take down his brothers.

Stockman approached the table with the brain worm. Mikey gave another slow, deep breath as it was placed on his head.

"Dude, this is exactly where we fought the other one!" exclaimed Casey in a whisper. They were on top of a shipping crate in the docks, looking at the Kraang walker below.

"Do you remember how you took down the other one?" asked April.

"Yeah, Casey hit one of his exploding pucks into the cockpit," replied Raph. Everyone turned to Casey.

"Sorry, dude. I used them up in our earlier battle with the Kraang tonight."

"Then we'll just have to come up with a different plan," said Leo.

Mikey opened his eyes to find that he was on the floor, as he had been dropped there unceremoniously. He weakly pushed himself into a sitting position and surveyed his surroundings. He quickly noticed that he was in Shredder's lair.

"Turtle!" growled Shredder from behind him. "Stand up!"

Mikey stood and turned to face him.

"Fight me," Shredder barked.

Mikey drew his nunchucks and stood ready. Shredder drew his blade, then Mikey charged. He jumped high into the air and threw a smoke bomb at the ground. Shredder raised his blades, ready for him to strike through the smoke, but after a few seconds, the smoke cleared away, and the only other one in the room was the Stockman-fly. Mikey had escaped.


	3. Chase

"Hey! You!" Raphael shouted at the walker. It used its giant metal legs to turn around and face him, making thunderous footsteps as it turned. It powered up its lasers and fired them at him. He gracefully dodged each beam before they even hit the wooden docks. Of course, then it was harder, for he had to jump out of the way or be showered with wood splinters.

While Raph had its attention, April, Leo, and Casey snuck around to the side. They hid, crouched down on top of a shipping crate. Leo drew his sword and waited. Soon, Raph had it at the angle that Leo wanted it. The hole leading to the cockpit was facing him. He aimed his katana carefully and threw it. It glided forward right into the hexagonal opening and stuck into the crystal powering the walker, which fractured and started to give random jolts and bursts of energy.

"Move!" Leo shouted. He, April, and Casey jumped down behind the crate. Raph ducked behind another just as the walker exploded in a flurry of pink flames. It stumbled clumsily off the docks and into the depths of the sea.

"Mission accomplished," Leonardo boomed, imitating Captain Ryan.

"Let's go," Raph said, rolling his eyes at his older brother's nerdy comment.

Michelangelo ducked into a dark alleyway, looking out onto the street and the sidewalks on either side. Donatello looked up to see his little brother, breathing heavily. An entire army of footbots ran past without a second glance.

When he was sure that they were gone, Donnie spoke. "Mikey, what happened?"

Michelangelo jumped and turned to look at him, noticing him for the first time, but did not respond. His eyes were wide, his pupils contracted with fear. He rapidly looked from Donnie's face, trying to read his expression, to his hands, making sure that he hadn't gotten anything out.

"Mikey?" Donnie repeated, concern entering his voice. He reached out to his younger brother, trying to comfort him, but Mikey gasped and backed further against the wall, breathing harder. His eyes darted from Donnie's face to his hands to the buildings behind him.

"Are you okay?"

Mikey charged straight for Donatello, who, startled, jumped out of the way. Mikey jumped and grabbed onto the second story's fire escape, hoisted himself onto it, and raced up the stairs to the roof.

"Mikey!" Donatello cried in alarm after him.

Shortly after leaving the docks, the four had spotted the Mighty Mutanimals and stopped for a discussion on the rooftops.

"We just stopped a Kraang walker at the docks," Raph tells Slash.

"We were just going to investigate the room of a scientist who was reported missing yesterday," Slash replied.

Rockwell and Leo were talking about what they had learned about their common enemy when April groaned and put a hand to her head. She had the feeling that something was terribly wrong...

Mikey ran faster, knowing that Donatello was chasing after him. He jumped an alley and looked behind him. Donnie was gaining on him. He ran into something with a WHAM!

Mikey yelled as he and Leo went tumbling to the ground. On the way down, he cut his arm on the sharp edge of a ventilation duct. He grimaced in pain as he and Leonardo both quickly got to their feet.

"There you are!" said Raph, approaching his youngest brother. "Where have you-" but he stopped when he saw the orange-masked turtle's terrified expression.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked, reaching out to examine his little brother's arm. Mikey backed up, then realized that it was a mistake. He was in the center of the circle, with eight pairs of eyes all focused on him. He looked from one of them to another, trying to read them all at once.

"What's wrong?" April asked, trying to make her voice sound calm and soothing.

Raph took a step forward, becoming concerned. Mikey seized the opportunity to bolt through the open gap between Raph and Leo. He made it past them, but not much farther. Donnie suddenly leapt out, sending them both tumbling right back into the center where Mikey had jut escaped. Donatello tried his best to hold Michelangelo still, but he was struggling and putting up quite a fight. The other eight just stood there, shocked, concerned, and confused of whom they should help.

Mikey finally flipped Donnie onto the ground and ran away from them.

"Donnie, what happened?" asked April, who had a feeling that she could trust his answer.

"Shredder did something to him," he gasped, sending looks of horror around the group.

"What?" Raph demanded. "What's wrong with him? Is he going to be okay?"

"I- I don't know," admitted Donnie, when he caught a glimpse of the ventilation duct. It had a bit of blood on it where Mikey had cut his arm. Donnie rushed up to it and put some in a vial.

"Maybe this will tell us something."

Back in the lair, Leo explained what had happened that night. Slash and Pigeon Pete had gone on their investigation while Rockwell and Leatherhead had stayed to help. After Leo had finished his story, they all went to the lab to see how Rockwell and Donatello were doing.

"Anything?" Leo asked hopefully.

"I think he's under the control of one of those brain control worms," Donnie replied, looking into the microscope.

"Then why didn't he attack us?" Raphael asked.

"Stockman overdid the reactant of the solution," the purple-masked turtle replied. "It messed with the worm's ability to function properly."

"So what did it do to him?"

"When I ran into him, he was running away from some foot, so he still doesn't trust his enemies..."

"- But he doesn't trust us, either," Raph finished. "How do we stop it?"

"Well," Donnie started, "We found traced of the reactant in his bloodstream, so if I can make a serum to counter its effects, it should gie us our Mikey back, but I'll need some time."

"You and Rockwell work on that," said Leo. "We'll go find him."

They split up to search the city. Raph had a lot on his mind... he hoped that Mikey had stuck to the parts of the city that were familiar to him. If he ran away, it would be hard to find him, even if he had his T-phone on him. Leo was tracking his signal at that very moment, but everyone else had spread out in case he had left it somewhere the first chance he got, knowing that they could use it to track him.

 _What if Donnie and Rockwell can't do it? What if we can't find him?_ His thoughts were interrupted, however, when his phone buzzed. He pulled ot out and read a two-word text from Leo:

 **Found him.**

April and Leatherhead were already with Leo by the time that Raph arrived. They were on a rooftop, Mikey backing up from Leo, who was trying to calm him down.

"It's okay, Mikey. We're not here to hurt you," said Leo gently, taking a step forward. Michelangelo only stepped back further. "We want to help you."

Mikey backed up further to find that he was trapped between them and a door that led to the building's staircase. His eyes grew even wider and darted around faster, trying to see them all at once.

He was trapped, and they were closing in. He suddenly jumped onto the roof of the staircase's entrance and ran for it. It took a second for everyone else to react. He had a head start. He sprinted as fat as he could, not looking back.

 _We just have to hold him off until Donnie gets here,_ thought Raphael.

They followed him into an alley and chased him into a dead end. Leo stood on the fire escape above him to block his way out. Raph, April, and Leatherhead blocked the alley. Mikey, knowing that he was hopelessly trapped, had two options: give up or try to get past them. He charged at April, who readied herself, but instead of attacking, he jumped over her.

He had almost escaped the alley when a hand grabbed him. He struggled against Donnie, who fought to keep him still, a syringe in his hand. He managed to put the needle in Mikey's neck for a moment, just long enough to inject the antidote. Michelangelo broke free of his immediate older brother's grasp, his eyes wide, his hands around his neck as if he was afraid that Donnie had just poisoned him. He stumbled back and fell to the ground, shaking violently.

Donatello knelt down to him and gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"Mikey?" he asked, but got no reply out of his younger brother. As the minutes passed, Donnie remained at his brother's side, waiting for him to calm down. He seemed to shake a little less each second, and his breath slowly returned to normal.

Finally, he looked up at Donnie, his tired eyes lacking their usual glow.

"I'm sorry I gave you guys so much trouble," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Oh," Donnie sighed in relief. "We're just glad you're okay."

He helped his unsteady little brother to his feet, then looked back to Leo, April, Raph, and Leatherhead, who were standing at a distance so that Mikey wouldn't feel threatened, and smiled. Similar relief flooded their faces.

"Let's go home," Donnie said.

They met up with Casey in the lair.

"Well, we had better be going to help Slash and Pete," said Rockwell.

"Thanks for all of your help," Donnie responded.

"Happy to give it to our friends anytime," said Leatherhead in his deep, gravelly voice.

Leo had just finished explaining things to Master Splinter when he saw Donnie going up to his lab. He trusted his Donatello's mind, but was equally concerned for Michelangelo. He stopped Donnie before he entered his lab.

"Are you sure Mikey's going to be all right?"

"Just look, dude," said Casey from beside him, gazing out to the middle of the living room. Leo turned to see what he was looking at.

Raph was laying on the couch, his back propped up against the armrest. He had his arm placed protectively around Mikey, who was laying on top of him. He had a small, content smile on his face. Both lay still, fast asleep.

Donnie continued into his lab without answering Leo's question, but Leo didn't call after him. He knew that everything was going to be just fine.

The end! I hope you enjoyed it! I will be writing more stories!


End file.
